Princess Sparklefists

I keep meaning to do a real life update, but that will have to come at a later date, because I saw this end of the year reading meme on isiscaughey's journal and decided I needed to do it instead.

1. What's the best book you read this year?
Oh, I am never good at superlatives. I'm going to cheat a little bit and say Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis, which is essentially one novel in two volumes. I've really enjoyed some of her other novels, but this one really sucked me in. Time travel and the London Blitz? I'm so there. I was really immersed in these for a few days.

2. Any other reading highlights?
Bossypants by Tina Fey: Because it's really, really funny.
The False Princess: Because I'm a sucker for fairy-tale-esque stories, and this one went beyond the norm with some actually unexpected twists.
All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen: Because it's got some Shakespeare, some Wilde, and lots of kickass characters. If more steampunk were like this, I would be way more enthusiastic about steampunk.
Divergent by Veronica Roth: Because who doesn't enjoy YA dystopia. (Probably plenty of folks, actually.) I described this to a friend as "The Giver for people who liked The Hunger Games. In Chicago."

3. What's the most challenging book you read this year?
There are multiple ways I could interpret challenging, but I'm going with Letters Home which is an edited collection of Sylvia Plath's letters to her mother from her enrollment at Smith to her death. I started the book in January and finished yesterday. It was challenging for me both because of form (letters don't have much of a narrative thread) and subject matter (Sylvia almost always presented her life as if everything was perfect, up to the last letter she sent).

4. What's the worst book you read this year?
This is a tough one. As some of you may recall, bookwench31 gave me some awesomely bad ARCS that I reviewed on this very journal. However, I think the honor of worst book of the year goes to Death's Daughter by Amber Benson. This was the book that finally convinced me that I had way too little time to read to justify spending on reading awful books just for the hell of it (peer pressure be damned!).

5. Which authors featured most prominently for you in 2011?
That would be Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant (she's the same person, yo). If you haven't read any of her books, DO IT. She's an incredibly productive writer, which is great for me. This year I read the two latest in the Toby Daye series (my favorite urban fantasy series), Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea, and the first two in the Newsflesh series (my favorite zombie apocalypse series?), Feed and Deadline, plus the prequel novella Countdown.

6. Were you part of a reading challenge? Did you meet it?
Not anything formal, but I challenged myself to finish at least one book a week (that would be 52 total) for 2011. I'm currently at 55 with a few days left, so go me!

7. Are you signed up for any in 2012?
I'll probably try to top this year in 2012. Which should hopefully be easier now that I've finished watching Buffy and SGA.

8. What books are you hoping to get for Christmas (or buy next, if you don’t do the holiday gifting season thing)?
Not a specific book, but my mom and brother gave me a Kindle for Christmas! Right now I've got a few books from the public library and another from Project Gutenberg, because even with my new fancy toy in hand I am super cheap.

9. Which books are you most looking forward to reading in 2012?
I'm sure there are others but off the top of my head: Deadline by Mira Grant (OMG why is it not out yet?!), Discount Armageddon and Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire (hey, are we noticing a theme yet?), and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

10. Any final book thoughts?
I've said this to Patty before, but I really miss working in a public library and getting to see all the new books as they come across the counter. I feel like I have to work much harder now to keep up and to find stuff that really grabs me.

Comment to this entry and I'll pick three of your fandoms. You must then update your journal and answer the following questions:

01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?

jo_blogs gave me Gilmore Girls, Firefly, and The West Wing. Interesting choices, because they're all shows that I love but don't really talk about that much.

( My answers. Some spoilers if you haven't seen the shows in question. )

An awesome book meme from librarian extraordinaire kit_the_brave.

( Under the cut! )

isiscaughey tagged me for a meme.

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, write an entry with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 16 people to be tagged.

1. I hate broccoli.
   
2. I have webbed toes. Yes, really.
   
3. I went to Catholic school for four years. It was not traumatic. I really liked it there.
   
4. If there were money in it, I'd probably just stay in school forever. I enjoy academia.
   
5. I am almost always late. I keep trying to fix this, but I mostly fail.
   
6. I told my high school guidance counselor I wanted to be a zamboni driver.
   
7. I used to watch The Little Mermaid almost every day. (I was five.) For my sixth birthday, I had a The Little Mermaid themed party.
   
8. I've only left North America once. I went to London for ten days and thought it was completely awesome.
   
9. I can't leave the house in the morning without eating breakfast. Unless, of course, I'm leaving to go out to breakfast.
   
10. In high school, I was a page at the public library, and I was very particular about books being in the proper order. I can't be bothered to put my own books in any kind of order. They're arranged by size because they fit best on the shelves that way.
    
11. I studied Italian for four years.
    
12. I want to live abroad sometime in my life.
    
13. I am completely unorganized.
    
14. I spend most of my time looking at a computer screen.
    
15. I am the last cylon. Okay, not really.
    
16. I really want some ice cream right now.
    

I started the first five items with the letter "i", then I couldn't change it because it would look wrong. Clearly I am insane.

I think half my flist has done this already, so I just tag anyone else who's interested.

When you see this, quote Leo McGarry....

"We've got separation of powers, checks and balances, and Margaret, vetoing things and sending them back to the Hill!"

I'm taking a break from actual work, because working on my website is making me want to hurt something or someone. Oh, how I love group projects. But instead of me bitching about how much a loathe the end of the semester (with a fiery passion), here's the song meme that's been floating around LJ. So here we are, lyrics from 25 songs from my iTunes on shuffle.

( Radio Alexis under the cut )

My f-list seems to have exploded today and I haven't had time to read everything yet, but this popped up four or five times, and I can't resist The Princess Bride.

When you see this, post in your own journal with your favorite quote from The Princess Bride. Preferably not "As you wish" or the Inigo Montoya speech.

"Bye bye, boys!"
"Have fun storming the castle!"
~Valerie and Miracle Max

This is, of course, only one of a myriad of favorites. It's too packed full of great lines to choose just one! :D

Borrowed from isiscaughey.

* Pick 15 movies you love.
* Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie.
* Post them on your blog for everyone to guess. Fill in the film title once it’s been guessed.

( Quote under the cut. )

I have smart friends who figured most of these out immediately, but there are still two mystery quotes!

Just a meme snagged from several folks on my f-list: When you see this post, quote from Doctor Who on your LJ.

"The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me?"

~The Ninth Doctor, "The Long Game"

Chosen because partly because I love Nine and partly because I just watched "City of Death" again the other day. :D Also, it's just fun travel advice!

This meme popped up on the LibraryThing blog and on my f-list yesterday, and it's about books! The list below is the top 106 books tagged as "unread" on LibraryThing, as of this morning, May 2. I really want to know who decided this would be a 106 item list. Why not 105, or just an even 100?

The rules:
Bold books you have read, italicize books you started but didn’t finish, and strikethrough books you hated. Add an asterisk* to those you’ve read more than once and underline those on your to be read list.

( Long meme is looooong )

The totals
Read: 30
Unfinished: 10
Unread: 66
Disliked: 1
To read: 5

I included abridged versions that were assigned in high school in the unfinished category, and limited "to read" books to my current list (yes, it's actually written down) and the books I own. I don't use the "unread" tag on LibraryThing, but if I did, only three of my books would appear on this list.

And my apologies to William Faulkner. I didn't love every book I read from this list, but The Sound and the Fury was the only one I disliked enough for it to earn a strikethrough. Caddy smelled like trees. I get it. It didn't help it that I had a bit of a personality conflict with my American Lit teacher that year. (I made her cry. Whoops.) Because of William Faulkner I was a bad English major and avoided all modernism courses in college. So there you have it.